Ghanaian internet pioneer Prof Nii Narku Quaynor says he still feels betrayed by Ghana over the shutdown of Network Computer Systems (NCS), the company he founded during the country’s early internet era.
Speaking in an interview with Kafui Dey, Prof Quaynor said the decision reflected a failure to understand how important NCS was and the potential at the time.
“I still feel betrayed by my own country because I don't think they understood what was going on, and they still don't understand what's going on. It's too big. They still don't understand; if they did, we'd be galloping, that's my perspective,” he said.
He said his work was difficult for many people to appreciate because it involved technology that was still largely unfamiliar, pointing to the level of his academic training in computer science.
“But how do you understand a PhD in computer science from 1977? It's difficult, isn't it? It's too much, so unless you're a student there, you're not likely to understand,” he stated.
Despite the experience, Prof Quaynor said he had forgiven those he believed contributed to what happened to NCS because he did not think they necessarily acted out of malice.
“I've forgiven everybody. Well, because I was playing the role of a pioneer, I could easily forgive people, so that was not a hard bit for me at all. If I felt that they were doing it maliciously, it would have been difficult, but in my thinking, they were doing it out of ignorance and out of self-interest, so it's easy to forgive them,” he added.
Reflecting on the work NCS was doing at the time, Prof Quaynor said the company was experimenting with internet broadcasting before major international media organisations had adopted the technology.
“We were broadcasting on the internet long before even CNN and all these things started,” he said.
